the picnic you and Johnny are going to have! I wish I was as young
as you and going with you. Your best way to find Ned will not be to
follow his trail, but to head him off somewhere in the Glades.
That's easier than you think. I could pretty nearly figure out to a
mile where he is this minute. You see, he's with Billy Tommy, and I
know that Injun. Couldn't make him hurry if he tried, and he won't
try. He'll be so busy shootin' things and skinnin' 'em and fussin'
'round camp that they'll get ahead mighty slow. Shouldn't wonder if
it took 'em a week from the time they started to get to where Tommy
left his canoe. Then they will put out in the Glades and head
straight for Charley Tiger's camp."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know Tommy and because it's the only Injun camp 'round
there where he'd be sure to find _whyome_--that's whisky, or rum, or
anything that'll make drunk come."

"But suppose Ned wouldn't go that way?"

"Oh, Tommy'd fix that. He'd point to the west and say, 'Big Swamp,
canoe no can take!' Then he'd wave his hand to the east, 'No trail,
_oko suchescha_ (water all gone), saw-grass _ojus_ (heaps)!' No,
they never got past Tiger's camp without stopping. Then Tommy got
drunk and Ned couldn't move him under four days. It's an even chance
that they are right there now."

"How far from here is Tiger's camp?" asked Dick.

"Less than forty miles, but you'd think it was four hundred before